Skeels Auto Body opens new shop in Adrian

ADRIAN — In the course of some 40 years in the body-shop business, Charlie Skeels has seen every kind of auto-body damage possible.

There are the collisions with other vehicles or with animals, of course. But then there are the more unusual cases as well.

Like the people who accidentally drive through their garage doors, for example. Or the customer whose vehicle was hit by a falling tree — as he was driving down the road.

“This time of year, it’s a lot of car-deer (accidents),” Skeels said. “But we get all kinds.”

Skeels and his son Chas own Skeels Auto Body, which has been in business for about five years now but recently moved into its own building with the purchase of the former Kelly’s Body Shop. The business is located at 3750 S. Adrian Highway, Adrian.

The elder Skeels has been in the auto-body business since 1973, owning his own shop for several years and then in 1982 going to work for Mann Motors, where for a while he managed both the body shop and the service department. Chas followed in his father’s footsteps by completing the Lenawee Intermediate School District Tech Center collision-repair program and working at Mann’s as a co-op student.

When the dealership closed, the duo purchased its body-shop equipment and went into business for themselves.

Skeels said he has always enjoyed doing auto-body work, as does his son.

“It’s not quite an art, but it’s fun,” he said. For one thing, body work — whether it’s repairing dents, major collision work, paint jobs or doing rust repair, which is one of the things the shop offers that many other places don’t — allows the technician to see the results of the repair. And Skeels also enjoys the people he’s gotten to know over his years in the business, from the customers to the insurance agents and adjusters.

“I’ve made a lot of friends,” he said.

And he’s proud of the fact that these customers and insurance professionals have a great level of trust in the work he and his son do. Indeed, most of the business in their busy shop comes from either repeat customers or from people who have had the shop recommended to them.

The secret to the father-and-son team’s success is fairly simple. “We’re honest with people,” he said. And, he added, he and Chas understand that the whole idea of dealing with the aftermath of a collision can be hard on people.

“We try to walk (customers) through it,” he said. “People get so attached to their cars that we try to make it as easy and smooth as possible.”

Skeels Auto Body is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturdays by appointment. The shop’s phone number is 265-8414.

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This article was written based on information provided by the business.

Lenawee in Business is a feature of The Daily Telegram business page for new businesses and businesses celebrating a major anniversary. If you have a story for a Lenawee in Business, call assistant news editor Sue Van Fleet at 265-5111, ext. 259, or email sue@lenconnect.com.